“Forgotten” Apple Cofounder Ron Wayne Releases Biography

By Bryan Chaffin

Sep 7th, 2011 6:47 PM EDT

Ron Wayne, sometimes referred to as the third “forgotten” Apple cofounder, announced Wednesday the release of an autobiography called Adventures of an Apple Founder. His more famous cofounder, Steve Wozniak, has written the foreword for the book.

Ron Wayne

Mr. Wayne was brought into the company by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to serve as adult supervision for the brand new company, and his 10% ownership stake was designed to serve as a tie-breaker for the two Steves. He didn’t stay with the company for very long, however, and sold his 10% back to Messrs. Jobs and Wozniak for $800 when he became concerned about the liabilities the company was racking up in its early efforts to launch the original Apple I computer.

Mr. Wayne’s background was engineering, and he worked with Steve Jobs at Atari. He was several years older than either of the other two founders, and Mr. Jobs had supposedly been impressed with both his integrity and his ability to stand up to Mr. Jobs himself, who had a powerful personality even then.

“Adventures of an Apple Founder offers a never-before-told backstory to the man whose passion for engineering and design spans nearly three quarters of a century,” the book’s publisher, 512K Entertainment, said in announcing the title. “Ron holds a dozen patents, has worked in aerospace engineering, at video game maker Atari, and has spent the better part of his life in pursuit of a long time passion—building Las Vegas style gaming machines.”

The autobiography is available today, including the following three formats: